On September 23rd 2019, Greta Thunberg addressed the UN at the Climate Change Action Summit. Her statement was a rousing one:
“My message is that we’ll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!… We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
At that time, Greta was 16 years old. At Primary Engineer, we believe that children do have a voice, and that we should be doing everything we can do help that voice shout loud!
On the 18th March 2020 at DataFest, Primary Engineer will launch the STATWARS: Climate Change Challenge for primary and secondary pupils. The launch will bring together climate experts, data professionals, teachers and pupils interested in taking part in the project. There will be guest speakers, pupil interviews with the experts and professionals, fun activities and more…
The aim of the event is to help attendees build their knowledge of the STATWARS project, climate change issues and the importance of data in tackling such challenges.
The STATWARS®: Climate Change Challenge vision is to empower and educate pupils to tackle climate change, by providing a project that delivers meaningful and engaging mathematics, numeracy and data literacy to pupils!
We will use the data we collect during this project to support meaningful research and decision making, with its careful application revolutionising our understanding of how to manage the Climate Change Challenge ahead of us! We need young people to be a part of that journey…
How does STATWARS® Climate Change Challenge work?
Pupils will:
- Design and create a data driven infographic poster, documenting their research on climate
change and 3 things they will change to help reduce carbon emissions - Design and create an advertisement poster/manifesto pledge, where pupils can explore ways of
drawing attention to their ideas for change and encourage others to join them on their journey. - Produce a 60-sec pitch to support their manifesto and encourage others to join them.
The competition’s structure encourages pupils to apply mathematics not just creatively, but logically, to research, collect, analyse and present data, whilst drawing on their own personal experiences to support their climate change manifesto. The nature of the project encourages and develops meta-skills related to teamwork, leadership, curiosity, empathy, critical thinking and resilience, as teams are asked to consider indeterminate problems and develop data driven hypothesis.
So, get involved and help your pupils make a difference to the world we live in!
For more information please email info@statwarscompetition.com and visit www.statwarscompetition.com/climatechange STATWARS® runs annual competitions that have been developed by Primary Engineer Programmes for The Institution of Primary Engineers® and The Institution of Secondary Engineers®.